Lando: That's always been a danger looming like a shadow over everything we've built here. But things have developed that will insure security. I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever. --Episode V

As you know, this deal was to bait the crew of the Millennium Falcon into Cloud City and turn them over to Darth Vader. Ever wonder what it would have been like if Lando’s conscience never got to him, and he sided with the Dark Side? This following deck will give you some idea.

Lando Calrissian (C) is the main focus of this deck. Lando (C) prevents damage to himself by discarding one of your units, and then gives you 2 build points the following turn. Finding units to sacrifice is no longer a problem, thanks to the asteroids; also, the usefulness of the Lando stack provides depth to the main focus: Lando can draw cards, return units from the discard pile, heal himself, bring in Bespin units for free and grab Neutral Locations. Admiral Firmus Piett (C) provides more tricks with Retaliate, allows you to stall in the Space arena, and also works well with the asteroids. And Watto (B) fuels cheap recursion that the deck has lacked since Ugnaught’s banning.

The Lando Lock

What this deck wants to do is lock down the Light Side and grow ever more powerful over many turns. Recursion is one of the most power tools the Dark Side can use against the Light Side. It is even more powerful than some of the "engine" decks that have surfaced in the last year of tournament play. Watto (B) and Lando (A) provide a steady supply of units while you're milling away the Light Side. Also, Missions like Hatch a Clone and Take the Initative can add to the deck's recursive nature. Once the Light Side has run out of units, your recursion will still bring more units back -- making it just a matter of time before you've ground the Light Side to defeat.

To set up the lock you’ll need Lando Calrissian (C), Admiral Firmus Piett (C), a Dark Jedi, and an asteroid. There are five Space units and one Ground unit with the subtype Dark Jedi, so the drawback of needing a third Character is removed. It seems like a lot of cards are required, but the low cost of the units allow you to cycle through much of your deck during setup; plus, the deck is packed with a lot of ways to draw cards.

The general strategy to beating Lando Calrissian (C) decks is to blitz your opponent and force them to either sacrifice all their units or let the damage through. This is what we aim to take advantage of. Asteroids provide multiple units available for Lando’s sacrifice while allowing him to gain a lot of build points the following turn. This is, of course, assuming your opponent is gunning for Lando Calrissian (C); if not, then they might be coming after you in Space, where they'll face asteroids running interference for your starfighters and Retaliate tricks with Yinchorri Fighters.

This deck gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on. Streets of Tatooine solidifies the lock, allowing you to retreat key pieces so they can't be attacked. After the lock is set, you can mill your opponent's library away with Bogwing, Dragonsnake and Lobot (A). Sebulba's Podracer (A) can shoot and run in the Ground arena. And Watto (B) allows you to bring back Space and Ground units, though he'll mainly be used to get back a Big or Medium Asteroid.

This deck doesn't win fast. The lock can be obtained pretty early on, but the win takes awhile. Following is another version of this deck; while faster than the previous one, it is still slower than the average deck.

This version drops the milling strategy in favor of Bespin speeders, Lobot (B) and Cloud City Prison. It's a more aggressive version, not using the milling tactic, but using the recursive nature of the deck to keep an army of cheap units on the march. You can challenge in Ground much faster, keeping a three-arena push on the Light Side that they're not used to seeing from most Dark Side decks.

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